Tawdry Little Affair {boyxboy}

Chapter Twelve

"Maybe they want to see how we age, like the differences between our ageing processes," Fionn had been brainstorming ideas for what seemed like hours, each one shot down by Dante.

"They could have just taken some of our flesh whilst we were unconscious and watched the decay. They wouldn't need to go through the trouble of keeping us here," Dante murmured, sat on the rocking chair with his head tipped back and eyes closed.

"But the flesh would be dead, they wouldn't be measuring ageing process, they would be measuring decay," Fionn slid his legs under the covers of the bed, feeling the air in the room drop a few degrees colder. It had been doing this for over an hour but obviously, Fionn was the only one to notice. The dead apparently didn't feel the cold either, great.

"If I don't get some blood soon then they really are going to be measuring my decay," Dante grumbled, his brows furrowing into a deeper set frown.

"They'll give you some soon, they haven't brought us here to starve us to death...hopefully," Fionn was trying his best to stay positive, his stupid little theories seemed to be helping somewhat, "maybe they're pumping various gases in here to see what they do to us," Fionn said after a few moments of silence.

"Maybe you're sat here giving them fucking ideas," Dante snapped, the first time Fionn had ever heard him speak so viciously whilst they were there, or possibly the first time he had heard him in that tone ever.

"Sorry," Fionn averted his gaze to his hands, tugging the covers up to his stomach as the cold began to spike through him more noticeably.

"Don't be," Dante said with a sigh, "I shouldn't have snapped, it's the bloodlust, it's making me irritable."

"How long will you last without blood?" Fionn hadn't realised earlier how much danger he was in if Dante wasn't given any blood soon.

"With the state I'm already in, a few days at the most," Fionn shivered, a mixture of the cold seeping under his skin and the fear bubbling up through his veins.

"And at the least?" Fionn caught Dante's eye but the vampire immediately looked away.

"A few hours," he confessed in a quiet voice, "if I lose control, lock yourself in the bathroom. They wouldn't have brought us both here just to let me kill you, I'm assuming they will have some way to stop me, just as they will for if you decided you wanted to rip me apart."

"You're not going to lose control, Dante, you're gonna be fine. When was the last time you lost control?"

"256 BC," Dante didn't seem to be listening to Fionn's support, "I ripped apart a village and walked away on my own for three years."

"What about..." Fionn trailed off, knowing Dante would understand.

"Stayed with a friend, unaware if I was even alive. I vowed to never lose control again after that," Dante looked even more distant than he had earlier, the reaction that Fionn hadn't been hoping for.

"What happened, if you don't mind me asking?" Fionn spoke in a much more gentle tone, the same one he had used when Dante was going through his addiction.

"Someone very dear to me was murdered," by the look on Dante's face, Fionn knew not to press any further.

"Um, I'm actually getting pretty tired," Fionn said with a yawn, wanting truly to just change the topic of their conversation, "do you mind if I turn off the light?"

"Go ahead, I can see in the dark pretty well, it's not like I actually have anything to do otherwise," Dante gave a small, pained smile and Fionn reached up to flick the light switch he had noticed before. Nothing happened.